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You had endured far more than I ever did, and yet you remained hopeful, always looking ahead. I didn’t want to fall behind. I wanted to become a man who could stand tall and proud when we met again. That single thought was what kept me going all along.

But who would’ve thought that dream would vanish like morning dew, fragile and fleeting. It disappeared the moment you died.

My mind went blank when I heard about the accident and saw your name listed among the dead.

I think the shock short-circuited my emotions. The next morning, I woke up like it was any other day, picked up breakfast from the convenience store, and went to work at Technos Crown as if nothing had happened.

That’s when it struck me…your body may have been gone, but your data still existed in the system. That realization lit a fire in me. I stopped eating, barely slept, and spent the next several days gathering every piece of data tied to «Hiyuki»: conversation logs, video clips, images. I copied everything using my admin privileges, masking my intent by grabbing data from other top players too.

Then I set a timer. Once it went off, it erased the entire game database—every server file, every backup I knew existed. I doubt any of it could be recovered. Not that it mattered to me. The world could’ve ended for all I cared.

Why did I do it? That shouldn’t even be a question. If something can be duplicated, it stops being unique. The moment you vanished, «E.H.O.» lost all meaning. Letting someone else run around with your face after your death would’ve been the highest form of blasphemy.

Before I realized it, I had made my way to the site of the accident. Snow was falling quietly. A bouquet of red roses lay at the roadside. It was only then, standing there, that I truly understood you were gone. I don’t remember much else, just that I stumbled into the road, holding the copied data close to my chest. And then a truck hit me.

◆◇◆◇

“So, when you came to, you found yourself reborn as the «Devta»?”

I managed to force out those words. My thoughts were a tangled mess after hearing Azure God’s monologue.

I could understand the despair, working hard only to be unacknowledged, being treated like garbage by your own family, and losing the one person who kept your spirit afloat. That kind of pain could drive anyone off the edge. But even so, wiping out «E.H.O.» and taking your own life… that was a path no one should’ve taken.

I let out a quiet sigh. There were plenty of things I could’ve said, but I honestly didn’t get how he could place the blame on me. He said, “Why did you have to die like that?! You ruined everything!” as if I had chosen to die. Though, I admit—just a little—I was glad to know someone had mourned me in the real world.

But unexpectedly, Azure God shook his head in response to my earlier question.

“No… that’s not quite it. After my death, my soul was retrieved by the Sefer Yetzirah, the Book of Formation that governs the Intuitive Cosmos. It granted me the authority to shape and manage this world, as one of its pages.”

“Uh… feel free to explain that in Japanese. It’s fine, really.”

He completely ignored my confusion and continued speaking without pause.

“What exactly is the Sefer Yetzirah? Even I can’t say for sure. It might be a system left behind by a higher-order entity or remnants of some non-human civilization. But if I had to guess, I’d say it originated from the distant future of humanity, an ultra-advanced society. Sefer Yetzirah, as I interpret it, is a massive, high-level information system embedded in the Imaginary Space known as the Dirac Sea. It was likely created to bypass the delays of physical communication, enabling data transmission across civilizations spread throughout the universe.”

“Riiight. I have no idea what you just said. But why would something from the future even bother with you, someone from our present?”

“Because in the Dirac Sea, time flows in reverse. Entropy behaves differently there. In that kind of space, past, present, and future are no longer distinct…they overlap, allowing something to exist across all of them simultaneously. I was retrieved because our objectives aligned. The full explanation was transmitted directly into my mind, so it’s hard to express clearly in words. But apparently, their final goal is to create a utopia for humanity.”

“I know it sounds absurd, but they’ve been observing a multiverse of isolated, self-contained worlds to use as references. Think of it as a litmus test, comparing cultures, ideologies, evolutionary paths, and societal systems to extract the best elements for building their perfect model. Crazy, right? Still, I agreed to their plan and used «E.H.O.» as the foundation to create this world.”

What the… I was left speechless by the scale of what he revealed. If he was telling the truth, then maybe this world, or even my original one, was just another testbed created by Sefer Yetzirah in their quest to build a utopia.

“I was beyond ecstatic. I selected your data to be brought back. Because in the utopia I imagined, there was only one version worth creating, a world where you and I would become Adam and Eve.”

“……”

Ugh. I physically recoiled at the thought. Just imagining some Eden-like paradise where he and I were naked, frolicking around… no thanks.

“And yet, somehow, all your data had vanished!” His eyes darted toward the corner of the room, where the only object left untouched amid the ruins was a single Life Jewel. But it was empty, just a clear crystal no different from ordinary quartz.

“Can you even imagine the despair I felt?! I tried reviving others and it worked just fine. But the one thing I wanted most was gone! What was the point of it all? The whole thing was a sick joke. A utopia, they said? Without you, it was just a personal hell, a paradise built on ashes!”

Azure God’s hollow eyes fixed on me, his voice trembling, as if the words were dragging themselves from the pit of his soul. It felt like he might cough up blood from the weight of them.

“But then, in the depths of my despair, you appeared. And the real surprise? You weren’t my creation. You returned as your original self. That’s when I decided, I’d start everything over, from day one. I waited, certain you’d choose the ideal reality I prepared. One free of suffering, of sorrow. But you didn’t. You rejected it. So why, Hiyuki? Why would you cling to a world this broken?!”

I didn’t even need to think. The answer came out on its own. “Because I love this world. And I love the people in it.”

Azure God stood frozen, stunned by my response as if it defied all logic. I didn’t waste the moment. I surged forward into a full sprint, releasing my Berserk state at last, something I had been restraining until now.

I had abstained from drinking blood for an entire week, anticipating a situation like this. My sanity was barely holding together, my thoughts threatening to unravel. But with my stats dramatically heightened by the Berserk state, I closed the gap between us in the blink of an eye.

“Haaaah!!” Letting out a fierce cry, I launched a full-powered spinning kick at the stunned Azure God. My agility caught him off guard, and before he could react, the blow connected cleanly, sending him hurtling through the window and out into the vast void of subspace, where nothing exists.